Glorious Excess (Born) Opening at JAMNSunday, July 13, 2008
Friday night was the big opening of my husband’s art show, Glorious Excess (Born) at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown LA.
We spent the early evening surrounded by family and friends that made the drive through Friday LA traffic to celebrate with us. Most exciting for me was seeing the work that I’ve watched go from sketch to completion displayed in the museum. I am especially proud of the time that Mike put into this show to make a statement about pop culture and the world’s obsession with celebrity, whether or not that fame is granted through talent.
Something else that I’m excited about - a few of the photographs that I have taken of Mike working (whether it be of him painting a canvas that stretches across our garage floor or of him on stage) are printed in the Glorious Excess (Born) Art Book. It was fun to be a part of the observation process of his work coming together and it’s cool to see some of that observation in print. In the book, all of the works on display at the museum are printed, as well as photographs that give a peak into the process of creating some of the art pieces. Similar to the way he writes music, Mike likes to mix different styles when working on visual art. Each individual piece shows his ability to use spray paint, acrylic, digital media, or a mix of the three. Not told in the description of the medium used is the countless hours Mike spent on the computer, either researching or creating; rolls of masking tape for covering areas that had been painted before adding a layer of spray paint; ink and sharpie; the small canvas used as test material for transferring the images that make up the background of Song and then the additional canvases it took when the process didn’t work as planned; the massive digital printing of Icon and the hope that it would still look as amazing at 72” x 96” as it did at 8”x10”; scissors, some kind of glue or sticky stuff and finishes (check out Momento Morti up close at the show for a good look at the amount of work that went into cutting and pasting); and the light dusting of silver spray paint that covered our camera when it was left too close to the action (no harm done - it actually looks like we meant to personalize it that way).
Mike’s paintings are up from now until August 3rd. If you make it down to the Japanese American National Museum, take the time to go through the whole museum. The permanent exhibition about the history of Japanese Americans is incredibly powerful, especially the area that talks about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. They actually have one of the structures from the internment camps. Standing inside the small, shack like building that was a typical dwelling for those put in the camps, I felt that I had a better sense of what my father-in-law and his family went through during that time in our history. It’s a powerful reminder of a grave mistake driven by fear that the US government made. And, the exhibit is also hopeful because it shows the way the Japanese Americans were able to accept what had happened and move on - beyond not just the internment camps, but the other laws that kept many Japanese Americans from getting full citizenship and the right to vote. Another cool part of the permanent exhibition - often there is a Japanese American volunteer in their 70s, 80s, or 90s who was interned that is happy to share his or her story with visitors. It’s an experience to take advantage of now, while these storytellers are still with us.
